Night Owl Cards

  With the way that Topps Heritage has dropped a lot of the traditions that made it so fun to collect, I kind of assumed/implied that every tribute used in the past was out the window. But that's not entirely the case.   The subsets from the chosen year still exist, the All-Star logos do, too. The design is the same -- um, sort of. And, I realized that Heritage is still matching card numbers, linking players who play on the respective team now with one who played on it then.   I don't know if it's happening as often as when I first did this comparison 12 or 13 years ago, probably not. But it's nice to know something is still right with this brand that's been the biggest disappointment of the 2026 card year for me so far.   I went through the modest amount of 2026 Heritage I have and found a handful of matches. I'll start with the obvious ones.   Each of the 2026 Heritage card shares its number with the 1977 Topps card. The italicizing of NL and removing the peri...

  It's my all-time favorite player Ron Cey's birthday today. He's 77. Yikes.   The last couple of years I've been able to show a card that "matches" with his birthday. You know, 1975 Topps with 75 years old, 1976 Topps with age 76, etc.   So this is his 1977 Topps card here. This was a big year for Cey and for me collecting him. Let's start with me.   The '77 season was really my first year of being super invested in major league baseball. I already knew I liked the Dodgers and that Cey was my favorite player, but what did that really mean? In 1977 I had the full concept down. This is why I was so glad that I pulled Cey's card that year very early on in the card season. I think it might've been from a rack pack but I don't know for sure.   As for Cey, he enjoyed a standout, powerful season in '77, beginning with the very first month. In April that year, he batted .425, hit nine home runs and drove in 29. He still holds the Dodger record...

  I am back after a few days out of town for the holiday.   During that time I engaged in no card things. There wasn't even an Easter card pack to open as there often is. That was very sad. Wandering in the wasteland stuff.   But at least there was baseball on the TV. While waiting for a game to start, I was flipping aimlessly through channels, which is something I almost never do anymore. (The internet connection isn't great where I was staying so old-school entertainment it was!) I stumbled upon an episode of "The Card Life". I think a lot of readers probably know what that is, it's the hobby show hosted by Phillies reliever Matt Strahm, who is also well-known as a card collector. I had no idea that the show was on television, I thought it was youtube/streaming only. But there it was on one of the MSG channels. As luck would have it, they were featuring something I was actually interested in -- the story about Roy Carlson, a longtime collector, who has created...

  It's World Series time starting tonight, what's sure to be my least-watched World Series since probably the late '90s. I'm not one of those "it's baseball, I'll watch no matter what" fans anymore, not at this time of the year. The game's changed too much for me to be in love with it that much. I will let "I was at work" be my excuse for not watching, but even on off days, like this weekend, I'll tune in for maybe a few innings. I still need to have a rooting interest, that's always a given. This year, it's easy. I have no allegiance to the Rangers at all -- they have three ex-Dodgers on their team, that's the most appeal they have for me -- but at least they're not snakes. I don't like the Diamondbacks, I never will, they've done so many things as an organization that makes me not take them seriously and even if they win the World Series, I still won't take them seriously. Put them in the NL West with my ...

(Hello, after a couple days away, which usually means I've been out of town, but in this case it's because my city ran out of water due to a massive water main break and, yes, I do live in Watertown, and I've heard all of your "No Water Town" jokes. The lack of water wasn't nearly as taxing and time-consuming as the reaction to the lack of water. So, anyway, I'm back, a little scruffy, but ready to post again. It's time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 327th in a series).   Some time ago, probably more recently than I'm willing to admit because recent discoveries fall out of my head more and more quickly these days, I came across this card and found out for the first time that the photo is not Dave Collins.   I don't know why it took me so long to know that. I usually have every factoid about 1970s baseball cards on file in the noggin, ready to dispense at any moment. But the consensus is that the photo is actually of someone named Bob ...